Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Legislation’s (B-BBEE) Role in Evincing Financial Inclusion in South Africa's Banking Industry

Abstract

The study aims to analyse the social and economic transformation brought about by the Broad- Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act 53 of 2003, as amended by Act 46 of 2013. This delves into the impacts of the Amended Financial Sector Code (FS Code) on the banking industry, particularly analysing the effects of the Empowerment Financing (FS600) and Access to Financial Services (FS700) elements. The first objective explores the intricacies of South Africa’s policy structures and historical backdrop of the country that could potentially impact the decision-making process of the financial industry when executing transformative initiatives. The second objective is to recognise the constraints impeding the achievement of financial inclusivity within the banking sector and evaluate the influence of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B- BBEE) legislation in relation to the Amended FS Code with regards to the Banking industry . The research recommends a revision in the monitoring approach of the B-BBEE legislation in South Africa by drawing upon insights from international leaders and utilizing these discoveries to offer effective strategies for enhancing the involvement of marginalized communities.

A quantitative research methodology was deployed by the extraction of secondary data for studying Bank’s financial inclusion initiatives and primary data through questionnaires disseminated to Beneficiaries of the two elements by means of targeting students of University of the Witwatersrand and professionals on LinkedIn. Through its quantitative assessment, descriptive statistics, Crosstabs, Chi-square analysis, and a summary of the results and explanation was provided.

The comprehensive analysis of the South African Banking Industry as implementors of financial inclusion initiatives demonstrates significant advancements and positive trends. Furthermore, the dissertation normality tests, revealing significant departures from normal distribution assumptions for specific variables and residing area levels